Sydney Sweeney Says Hollywood's 'Women Empowering Other Women' Attitude Is 'Fake': 'None of It’s Happening'

Mar. 15, 2025

Sydney Sweeney.Photo:Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu via Getty

Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu via Getty

Sydney Sweeneyis fed up with people in her profession who tear women down while pretending to build them up — which, according to her, is most of them.

The entertainment industry’s reputation for “women empowering other women” is a facade, Sweeney, 27, said inVanity Fair’s 2025 Hollywood Issue.

“It’s very disheartening to see women tear other women down,” she said in the interview, published Nov. 13. “Especially when women who are successful in other avenues of their industry see younger talent working really hard — hoping to achieve whatever dreams that they may have — and then trying to bash and discredit any work that they’ve done.”

“This entire industry, all people say is ‘Women empowering other women.’ None of it’s happening,” Sweeney continued. “All of it is fake and a front for all the other s— that they say behind everyone’s back.”

Sydney Sweeney.amie McCarthy/Getty Images

amie McCarthy/Getty Images

This false dedication to women’s empowerment, the star said, can be traced back to multiple sources.

“I mean, there’s so many studies and different opinions on the reasoning behind it,” she toldVanity Fair. “I’ve read that our entire lives, we were raised — and it’s a generational problem — to believe only one woman can be at the top. There’s one woman who can get the man. There’s one woman who can be, I don’t know, anything. So then all the others feel like they have to fight each other or take that one woman down instead of being like, Let’s all lift each other up.”

And, as a rising star, theEuphoriaactress is “still trying to figure it out” herself, she admitted. “I’m just trying my best over here. Why am I getting attacked?”

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The topic of knocking women in the industry down was raised in theVanity Fairinterview with reference to a producer whopublicly criticized Sweeney’s acting abilities and physical appearanceearlier this year — which a rep for the star called “shameful” at the time.

Sydney Sweeney at the Sydney premiere of ‘Anyone But You’.Brendon Thorne/Getty

Brendon Thorne/Getty

Baum went on to call Sweeney andGlen Powell’s smash-hit rom-comAnyone But Youan “unwatchable movie,” before revealing that she asked her students to “explain” the actress to her. “I said to my class, ‘Explain this girl to me. She’s not pretty, she can’t act. Why is she so hot?’ Nobody had an answer,” she said, perDaily Mail.

“But then the question was asked, ‘Well, if you could get your movie made because she was in it, would you do it?’… That’s a very hard question to answer because we all want to get the movie made and who walks away from a green light? Nobody I know,” Baum continued. “Your job is to get the movie made.”

“To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms. Baum’s character,” the statement concluded.

source: people.com